The tax exemption privileges of the Political Action Committee for Palestine have been revoked by the U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue, because in the bureau’s opinion the organization is no longer qualified as a “charitable or educational organization,” it was announced yesterday.
The Committee, which actively campaigned for defeat of the British loan because of British policy in Palestine, was criticized last week by a number of Congressmen whose names it used without authorization in newspaper advertisements asking defeat of the loan. Several members of its Congressional advisory committee resigned as a result of the advertisement.
A statement issued by Joseph D. Nunan Jr., Internal Revenue Commissioner, said that “according to the law exemptions are provided for educational and charitable groups. When an organization becomes a political or pressure group, those provisions no longer apply. The same action would be taken with any other organization in the same circumstances.”
In a statement to the press which said that the Revenue Bureau’s action would be contested, the Committee declared that it was being penalized because it opposed the loan.
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